Chapter 2: The Proposition

As Moxxi stared at Nash in shock she partially admired his attitude. He had just eliminated a huge part of the mysterious bandits that had been a thorn in her side for weeks. He didn't even seem to mind what happened and just lit up a cigar.

"Well then Nash," said Moxxi as she walked toward him with her arms crossed, stepping over the several dead bodies that littered the wooden floor. "I do believe you and your friend here…" she kneeled down and scratched Leroy's head as he continued to chew on the bandit's severed arm, "Have passed the written exam."

Nash picked up a chair and at down in it. "Oh really, Miss Moxxi?" Nash suddenly stood up, whistled and pat his hand on the chair. Leroy lifted his head up, grabbed the arm, and jumped onto the chair. Nash stepped over to the bandit whom he hit with the bottle, who was trying to crawl away. "No sent ya'll sunny jim?" Said Nash as he burned the bandit's head with his cigar.

"I ain't gonna tell you." Growled the bandit.

"Oh really?" replied Nash grabbing the bandit by his neck, dragging him over to some broken glass and put the bandit's face over it. "You don't SAY!?" grunted Nash as he smashed the bandit's face into the broken glass. Moxxi stood in shock; she had never seen this type of brutality outside of bandit groups. It seemed as if he had done it before, he truly was a person of the desert. Nash lifted the bandit's head, which was now bleeding profusely, and glass shards were stuck in his face.

"Fu-fuck you." Said the bandit. Nash picked him up carried him over to the bar.

"Leroy, come here boy." Said Nash. Leroy dropped the arm and trotted over to the bar. Nash slammed the bandit on top of the bar with the bandit's head hanging off of it. "Here is the deal, you tell me who sent you, I let you live, you don't and my skag will eat your fuckin face." The bandit looked at Leroy, whose tail was wagging and he licked his lips. The bandit looked back at Nash with a terrified face. Nash began counting down, "One, two-" Leroy jumped up and snapped at the bandit's face.

The bandit lifted his head, "Alright alright sweet fuckin Christ!"

A creepy smile appeared across Nash's face, "Naw that right there is wanted to hear."

"It was Splosive Jackie, Splosive Jackie sent us!"

"Thanks then." Leroy jumped up and bite off the bandit's head.

"Now why did you do that?" Moxxi gasped, "I thought you said you'd let him go?"

Nash shoved the dead body off of the bar, "There's a simple lil answer there Moxxi," said Nash lighting another cigar, "I lied."

"Oh well then, looks like you've got your first job right there." Said Moxxi with a casual walk towards Nash, then poked his chest, "You've got to go tell Splosive Jackie to fuck off."

"Easy, right Leroy?" Leroy lifted his head and spat out a human tooth.

"Just one thing," said Moxxi crossing her arms, "You can't kill him."

"That's a problem, we don't do alive."

"Well you have to."

"Why do you need him alive?"

"Because," said Moxxi waving her index finger at him, "I have a plan and I need his bandits."

"Fine, but you're going to need to come along with me and Leroy to settles these," Nash lifted his hands and did air quotes, "Negotiations," he put his hands down, "go smoothly."

"Well I wouldn't prefer it, but I see your point." Said Moxxi, realizing that he could only tolerate peace to a minuet amount.

"Come on, we're taking my car." Said Nash as he and Leroy walked out the door.

As Moxxi stepped outside, she was surprised by Nash's car. It was a dark tan pickup truck with a trailer on the back of the truck. On the front was a large skag skull. The entire car part of the truck was full of bullet holes and scratches; she would be surprised if it even drove ten feet.

"What is the deal with the skag skull?" asked Moxxi.

"Is Leroy's mom." Said Nash with a cold grin as he walked to the back of the truck.

Moxxi stared at him for a few seconds until Nash waved his hand for her to come over. As she entered the back of the trailer, she saw the sort of person Nash was. The walls were covered in gun racks, schematics, and ammo boxes. To the right were a reloading bench, table and chair, both covered in pieces of firearms and scraps of metal. To the left was a small cot. "Nice place you got here." Said Moxxi with a sarcastic tone.

Nash sat on the bed and whistled for Leroy, who then sat next to Nash on the floor, "I'd trust my car more than some bed roll."

"So what EXACTLY do you do Nash, other than kill people?" asked Moxxi, knowing that the question alone could change the situation.

"Nothing at the moment, I fix and modify guns when I'm short on cash." Said Nash standing up and putting his shotgun on an open rack on the wall.

"You're a Gunsmith!?" said Moxxi, whose mind dazzled with the countless possibilities.

Nash slid through a hole into the driver seat of the truck, turned and smiled, "To an extent."

"That's pretty rare out in the borderlands." Said Moxxi, trying to contain her joy.

"Out in these here parts, skills are skills, rarity doesn't mean shit, you may want to take a seat." Suddenly the truck shot forwards at an incredible speed, barley giving Moxxi time to jump into the passenger seat.

"Clearly I miss judged your vehicle, it looks as if it could barely hit thirty." Said Moxxi holding onto her hat.

Nash made a U turn and faced the truck towards the exit ramp, then turned to Moxxi and hit the radio. "Looks can be deceiving." Little runaway began to play on the radio.

"Clearly." Said Moxxi with a sly smile, "it is a long drive to the west Rust commons, wake me when we get there." Moxxi leaned up against the windshield and put her hat over her eyes. She wasn't really sleeping of course, she was going to see what Nash did while he thought she was asleep.

"Can do." Replied Nash.

It was a beautiful day, the sun beat down, I had the radio on, I was a drivin

Nash tapped his hands on the steering wheel along with the song and thought about the job he had been given. This Moxxi lady was clearly short a few cattle, madly insane even. But this had been the first job offer in weeks, and the bills needed to be paid. Nash smiled to himself, his version of bills were fresh gunpowder, shell casings, beer, rakk meat, scrap metal, and oil. His life was much different from that of the ranch in his youth, but he preferred it this way.

Yeah runnin down the drain, never would come to me, workin on a mystery, goin wherever it leads, runnin down the drain…

The roads were quiet, the usual stray skag or idiotic bandit psycho. Nash had heard of Splosive Jackie before, his revolver, a maliwan, was dead accurate and was said to cause anyone who messed with Jackie to explode. Nash began to think over the basic maliwan revolver schematics. The barrels are prone to misalignment, and the cylinder pins were weaker than a 200 year old fence. If he was to be taken alive, disabling Splosive Jackie's revolver would be key. Nash stared at Moxxi who was still leaned up against the window.

I felt so good, like anything was possible, hit cruise control, and rubbed my eyes…

Moxxi had a cool and playful demeanor, something that Nash found appealing. Nash shifted his eyes from Moxxi's clearly fake snoring, and looked at the engraved silver ring on his right ring finger. His thoughts began to drift back to her… Her calming green eyes and sensitive voice… Nash suddenly looked up and saw a corrosive spiderant in the middle of the road. Nash turned the wheel sharply and avoided it by mere inches.

"What the hell was that?" asked Moxxi awaking from her pretend sleep.

"Spiderant was in the road, had to narrowly go around it." Replied Nash.

Moxxi dozed back off for real this time, and Nash glanced at the ring again. She left you Nash, get the fuck over it. Knowing her she is far away from Pandora.

Moxxi felt something wet sliding across her face; she opened her eyes to find Leroy on her lap with his tongue hanging out of the corner of his mouth.

"AW WHAT THE HELL!" yelled Moxxi in surprise. Leroy jumped off of her lap and laid down on the driver seat. Moxxi wiped her face off with her sleeve, "That is just disgusting, wait..." Moxxi looked around the car franticly, looking for any sign of where she was. All she could see through the shining sun was open desert, and hills in the distance. The sand was orange in the evening sun, and there was no sign of Nash anywhere. Did he really leave me in the middle of the fucking desert!? Thought Moxxi to herself. "That son of a bitch!" Moxxi heard a wrench behind her and turned around.

Nash was sitting on a wooden crate in the back of truck, with a sniper rifle across his lap and a small wrench in his hands. "What sum bitch?"

"nothing." Said Moxxi blushing. Well that was awkward. Maybe he isn't like the other desert trash… "What are you doing Nash?" asked Moxxi.

Nash picked up a cloth off of the table, flipped open his knife, and began to clean the blood off of it from earlier. "There are three bandits outside of Jackie's camp, easy targets from this distance."

Moxxi looked out of the windshield and covered her eyes from the sun's glare. She could barely make out three bandits standing in a triangle. They were at least 200 meters away from the truck. Moxxi turned back to Nash, who was now putting fresh bullets into his revolver's cylinder. "What's the plan sugar?" said Moxxi in a pleasant voice.

Nash looked up from his revolver and their eyes met. Nash's grey eyes showed nothing but rage and bloodlust. Clearly he didn't like being called Sugar. "Go in, carve a path to Splosive Jackie," Nash holstered his revolver, and took 2 grenades off of the table, "and persuade him to cease and desist." Nash stood up and got out of the truck and Leroy followed. Moxxi opened her door and follow him.

Nash steadied himself with the back of the truck and started breathing slowly. What is he doing? Thought Moxxi. Suddenly Nash fired three rounds, and even from a distance Moxxi could see the bandits' heads explode into a bloody mess. Moxxi turned to congratulate Nash on the shots, but all she saw was the rifle leaning up against the truck and Nash already halfway up the hill running towards the camp. Holy shit he's fastthought Moxxi as she began jogging towards the camp holding her hat on her head.

When Nash reached the hill's peak, two more bandits had opened the gate to see what all of the commotion was. Nash unholstered his revolver in a flash and popped both bandits in their heads. Nash holstered his revolver and jumped over the now rising gate. As he landed, he saw what he was up against. Nash re adjusted his hat and smiled, Shit, this is a lot more then I figured thought Nash. There were at least 9 bandits in the camp. Nash had thought that most of them were out on patrol, judging from the cars leaving that he saw earlier, he believed that there would only be a bruiser and Splosive Jackie himself. There were instead, 1psycho, 2 flaming ones, 3 midgets, 1 of which had a shotgun, a bandit on an upper platform with a combat rifle, a bruiser and Jackie. If I knew there would be this many I wouldn't have left the rifle at the truck.

Splosive Jackie lifted his hand towards Nash, with a dirty maliwan revolver in his hand, "GET THAT MOTHERFUCKER!"

Nash readied himself for the physical demand of the onslaught. The psychos and midgets ran at him all at once, and Nash grabbed his knife from the small of his back and flipped it open. One of the psychos swung their circular saw at Nash, aiming for his jugular. Nash grabbed the Psycho's forearm with his left hand and forced the saw into a midgets head as Nash slit the bandit's throat with the knife in his right hand. The Psycho dropped to his knees, desperately trying to keep his precious blood in his throat with no success as the midget hit the ground with a light thump. The second midget attacked, flailing its saw above its head and screaming bloody murder. Nash Flipped his knife so that the knife was facing downward, "Shut up ya apeshit little fuck!" yelled Nash as he kicked the midget in the chest, crushing its diaphragm into dust leading to instant death. The two flaming psychos swiped at Nash, one after the other. Nash dodged most of their attacks with ease, then grabbed one of their heads and forced the knife into the flaming psycho's temple. As Nash was removing his knife from the dead Psycho's brain, the second one sliced Nash's left arm. Nash rolled backwards holding the 3 inch long gash in his arm. Nash put his knife away, stood and quick drew his revolver, extended his arm and shot out the flaming psycho's kneecaps, and as he toppled backwards placed a round in the psycho's head. As Nash watched the corpse fall, he saw the shotgun midget lining up his shotgun with Nash's stomach. Nash rolled to the left behind an upright piece of sheet metal as the shotgun pellets scratched his face. Nash put his index finger and thumb between his lips and let out a sharp whistle. He then looked to his left and saw the gate's lever on an upper platform and shot it with his revolver. As the gate lowered, Leroy jumped over it and landed on top of the midget, whose gun had jammed. Nash stood up and watched for a second as Leroy devoured the midget.

"That's what you get for usin a tediore." Said Nash as he saw Moxxi panting on the other side of the now open gate.

Moxxi looked up and saw the death behind the gate. 6 dead bandits on the ground, all covered in blood. Nash grabbed one of the grenades from his belt, pulled out the pin and threw one at a bandit on a platform. The grenade disappeared for a second, then reappeared directly in front of the Bandit, then exploded sending pieces of flesh, bone and blood flying. Moxxi hid behind the sheet metal to avoid the flying gore fest. Christ! Talk about extreme prejudice! Moxxi stood up and saw Nash running towards the Bruiser, who was firing a vladof assault rifle at Nash. Nash jumped over the Bruiser landing behind him. The bruiser turned around and both he and Moxxi saw Nash standing there with a cocky smile, spinning a grenade pin around his finger. Moxxi looked at the bruiser's back and saw a grenade stuck to his back which detonated as soon as the bruiser turned to try and remove it.

Nash threw the pin which bounced off of Splosive Jackie's chest, "Well it looks like it is just you and me Jack." Splosive Jackie ran towards Nash, firing his revolver rapidly. Nash zig zagged towards him, grabbed Splosive Jackie's wrist, and snapped it backwards. As Splosive Jackie fell, Nash grabbed the revolver out of midair, smacked the barrel of the gun, then ripped out the cylinder and threw the two pieces away from each other.

Moxxi run up to Nash. "Nice- work." Nash didn't move he just looked at Jackie, who was screaming on the ground; Moxxi looked at his wrist and realized that Jackie's wrist bone was popping out of his arm. Nash knelt down next to him and flipped open his butterfly knife. "NASH NO!" screamed Moxxi.

"This is for my arm you fucker." Nash stabbed his knife into Splosive Jackie's right eye, and cut it out.

"Nash, WHAT THE FUCK!" screamed Moxxi enraged and confused.

"What, he ain't dead?" said Nash flipping his knife closed and put it away. Nash turned back to Jackie, who was screaming even louder. "Listen to me very carefully, One Eyed Jack, first off if you even manage to fix that gun of yours it'll never shoot straight again, and second I believe you and Ms. Moxxi here have a business agreement to discuss.

Nash sat down on a crate near the gate as he patched up his arm. He couldn't hear what Moxxi was saying exactly, but he caught a bit of it.

"Send me your best… I don't care what you say…You'll be paid… Better not try to pull another fast one on me or…"

Nash didn't pay attention to the last part because he knew what he would do to One Eyed Jack. Nash would cut out his other eye, slice out his heart, and hang him in front of the gate to show people not to mess with Moxxi.

Moxxi motioned for them to go and Nash, Leroy and her headed back to the bar. As they were driving back, Moxxi explained their deal. Nash would be her enforcer partially, as well as a gunsmith for her.

"Why in the hell would you need a gunsmith?" asked Nash taking a sip from a beer he got out of a cooler.

"That isn't important right now, sugar." Said Moxxi, now calling him that just to piss him off a bit.

"Fine, but you will have to tell me eventually, Leroy too." Replied Nash outing his beer in a cup holder. "Whatever it is you're doing Moxxi, your crazy for doing it, hell mad even."

Moxxi scratched her chin and smiled, "Mad Moxxi?" Moxxi turned to Nash, "I like the sound of that…"

Hey Subbies! Lynch here, sayin thanks for the reviews! Keep makin em, and now tell me how you are liking the character Nash? Who do you think Nash was reflecting on? Is Moxxi still Moxxi from the game? And why does Moxxi need Splosive Jackie alive? Review and try to piece it together! STAY TUNED! Also, I may be uploading a Q and A mini chap, just me answering you people's questions. So again, WRITE A REVIEW!